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Netflix releases first visuals of their live action Cowboy Bebop


Jman

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On 8/24/2021 at 1:41 PM, Ginguy said:

I'm not far-right. Far from it in fact.

I'll make a prediction to demonstrate my point. I predict that when the series comes out Rotten Tomatoes will have a critic score in the high 80s-mid 90s and the reviews will be "stunning and brave...a bold and fresh re-imagining of a beloved classic" etc.. The fan scores will be lower mid 60s-mid 70s. Some of them will be disappointed weebs who were expecting an exact live action version of Cowboy Bebop, others will be fans who are okay with the show and would have scored it higher if it was a stand alone series that was influenced by Cowboy Bebop, Outlaw Star, Trigun, Harlock et al., however being that it is specifically a live action remake/reboot of Cowboy Bebop they will shrug and not be nearly as excited.

 

I have to admit, I was wrong (in part) on this prediction. Rare, but it does happen, and in this instance I seriously underestimated the ability of Netflix to somehow fuck every single decent aspect of an outstanding television show up, down, sideways and with more objects that humanly possible to the point where even Netflix-simping critics call it out for being the living trash monster it is.

 The briefest of scenes from those tweets linked here have given me such a sense of overwhelming shame at ever having mentioned this series to anyone. This live action version is an affront to God who will surely smite humanity for having made it.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

LOL. Get fucked.

I'm almost never swayed by current pop culture trends, but this remake did get me to rewatch the original series on Funi's streaming service, save for two episodes I never got to see on Toonami. I bet that's the only thing it was good for for a lot of people.

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This show can actually be hilarious. Episode 7 had me rolling when they were juxtaposing Jet watching his daughter's recital and Spike fighting a bunch of goons right outside the room. At it's best when it's not trying to adapt scenes from the anime the Bebop crew has great chemistry. But it also had so many absolutely terrible dialogue exchanges and anything involving Vicious and Julia is boring, overly campy and painful to watch.

These are not the characters from the anime, especially in Faye's case. Jet is the closest but they had to go and make him a divorced guy with a kid so there's all this family drama. Shakir is honestly a fantastic Jet but they don't give him good enough material to show it.

Expanding on Vicious and Julia's storyline was a huge mistake and made only worse by the way Vicious doesn't feel threatening at all. He's quite frankly a little bitch boy.

They left so much out yet picked some baffling episodes to adapt and then changed them in ways that usually made them even more nonsensical.

But I will give them credit for one thing. They came up with a way for Faye to receive the video tape (VHS not Beta) without the tremendous leaps in logic the anime expected you to believe. The tape is all that Faye had when she was put on ice. That totally makes sense and doesn't purport that space UPS is incredible at tracking people down after decades but Faye had no other way to learn of her past. It's a shame Jet just had a VHS player on the Bebop so there's no hijinks of tracking one down but overall it is a better choice and when Faye watches the tape I actually felt something. It was an astonishingly sweet moment in a show that otherwise couldn't manage a sentimental or dramatic scene to save its life. It doesn't make up for how un-Bebop the whole show is but I'll give it that much.

All and all it's not a terrible sci-fi romp when it's not taking itself seriously. But it tremendously lacks chill and greatly misses the point of Bebop. It's fine but it is not Cowboy Bebop. The crew would have been much better off adapting Outlaw Star (lol Firefly already exists) or Space Dandy. But I actually think One Piece might turn out watchable.

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Outlaw Star would be a goddamn nightmare with these clowns.  Aisha?  She’d be fucked.  Hot Springs Planet Tenri?  Cut because it’s sexist.  Suzuka?  Lesbian.  Melfina?  Lesbian action girl.  At the end of the day Outlaw Star is a pulp sci fi novel through a shounen lens and these hacks hate that.

And my confidence in One Piece not being a smoldering pile sank to damn near zero after this.  They literally took lines from far left YouTubers as inspiration.

Edited by Jman
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